How do I get people to subscribe to push notifications? How do I configure the prompt?

You can only show push notifications to subscribers (users who give permission to receive your notifications). So one of the most important steps to run successful push marketing campaigns is to grow your subscriber base. 

There are 2 key decisions that impact getting a user to subscribe:

1. How you ask them to subscribe?  This is done through using either a custom or a browser prompt 
2. When you ask them to subscribe.

Asking your customers to subscribe

Your customers are asked to subscribe to push notifications through a browser prompt. You can rely on the default browser prompt (single opt-in) or to show a custom prompt (double opt-in) before they see a browser prompt. These can be set up from the PWA dashboard. Go to Push Notifications > Settings 

Custom prompt                                                                                                                   Browser prompt

While the custom prompt requires a double opt-in from customers, it is our recommended option because: 

1. If the customer chooses no on the custom prompt, we can choose to ask them again at a later date (say 2 weeks later) once they are more engaged and are more likely to say yes. However once they say no on the default browser prompt, they will never be asked again to subscribe as the browser remembers the rejection. 
2. The custom prompt is consistent with your brand and can be customized to increase the likelihood of them subscribing. 

To set up a custom prompt, we recommend uploading your logo, setting the title and description. Also choose how soon you want them to see the prompt after engaging with the page (Show Subscription dialog). The frequency sets the number of days after which we can re-ask your customers if they want to subscribe. 

Writing good copy also helps. But don't worry, you only need a few lines. :)

When you ask them to subscribe

You can decide when your users will be shown the prompts to subscribe from Push Notifications > Settings. The Show subscription dialog setting allows you to choose how long after a user has begun engaging with a page do you show them the subscription prompt. We recommend at least a few seconds. This is because users who are more engaged with a page are more likely to want to subscribe. 

Once they click Allow, they are subscribed (until they clear their cache). However, revisiting the website on clearing cache will re-register them.